Modern-day slavery

As oxymoronic it may sound, modern-day slavery is a regular feature of our domestic help industry. Just as we were squinting our eyes over Tayyaba’s parents rescinding their case, we have another incident of child abuse out of Islamabad. This time, the alleged victim is a 13-year-old boy who was abused at the hands of his employer over suspicion of theft. Indeed, we are living in times of slavery where even children are unprotected by the state — and people’s general conscience — where parents dump them onto employers and employers carelessly hire them, depriving minors of their childhoods. Although parents should also be reprimanded for stripping their children of freedom, it is the bourgeoisie class that must be taken to task first as there are too many suspicions surrounding Tayyaba’s case.

Long-term actions require the revamping of our laws and enforcing them on all persons, not just when a corrupt law-enforcing agency receives its payout. The current system favours the party with the bigger wallet, signifying a legal system that exists for the wealthy and highlighting its unjust structure to ignore the poor. A case in point is the facility of ‘hush money’ that only wealthy parties have access to, which should be fulminated and outlawed as it promotes a system of bullying.

We have long followed a class system that was practised with some relish by our colonial masters. It is clear you have to be somebody to obtain even an ounce of justice, or else you will be pushed around by the court system for years, chewed up, and eventually thrown out along with your case. It is reiterated that the new case be given a fair trial and suspects, if found guilty, face the music. Simultaneously, child labour should be tried as child abuse demanding protection by the state, especially when parents fail to care for their own.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2017.

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